Slowly but steadily, the genuine rtvik system is gaining popularity among the Hare Krishna devotees all around the world. Well, in our region here, one Sriman Svarat Prabhu, the president of the Hare Krishna Yatra in the town of Pedas, Negri Sembilan Malaysia, has openly declared himself a follower of the Rtvik system of initiations and agreed to cooperate with His Grace Sundar Gopal Prabhu, the temple president of Singapore and Rtvik representative for the regions of Singapore and Malaysia as of now. Sriman Svarat Prabhu, the temple president of the Pedas Yatra, who was already an advocate of the rtvik system of initiation, invited him to Pedas to initiate 4 devotees on behalf of Srila Prabhupada. The new initiates were Vaisnava Das, Manjari Devi Dasi, Cintamani Devi Dasi and Mitra Vrinda Devi Dasi. The initiates were in ecstasy to be directly connected to Srila Prabhupada. They were very happy to have realized that they have been now saved from the disastrous bogus guru system that is currently prevailing in ISKCON.

Along with Sriman Sacisuta Prabhu, His Grace Sundar Gopal Prabhu, Sriman Visvambhara Prabhu and ourselves went up to Pedas. Visvambhara Prabhu, although a grhastha, is always enthusiastic to be in the association of devotees. So he traveled with us in great eagerness.

Pedas is a typical Malaysian small, quiet town occupied by a significant number of Oriya families that have been 2 to 3 generations there. Svarat Prabhu happened to move in there about 2 years ago owing to his work commitments. He started preaching to the Oriya people there in an estate temple there managed by the Oriyas.

On the 20th of June, 2009, we had a very nice initiation ceremony. They received us very well. Simple people that they are, they enjoyed the kirtana and the initiation ceremony. Visvambhara Prabhu, being an Oriya himself, spoke at length about initiation, about Srila Prabhupada, and about Lord Jagannatha in the Oriya language.

The program was so enthusiastic and inspiring that the devotees immediately proposed to build a beautiful temple for Lord Jagannatha. They then consulted our President Sriman Sundar Gopal Prabhu for his assistance in accomplishing the project for which he readily consented. The land to build the temple is already acquired and they need some funding and other technical guidance. This, once accomplished, would be the first ever temple for Lord Jagannatha in Malaysia, thus fulfilling the desire of Srila Prabhupada.

The Mangala Arati next day was attended by us and Svarat Prabhu’s family and one more Oriya family who were greatly inspired by the initiation and are seriously aspiring to be initiated by Srila Prabhupada. The entire morning program including a very insightful Srimad Bhagavatam lecture by Sriman Sundar Gopal Prabhu and breakfast prasadam saw Svarat Prabhu very fervid in pushing on the movement there with newly-infused vigor. He and his family are going to attend our Ratha Yatra on Sunday, June 28, 2009.

I was very much inspired by the whole episode. It left me wondering how nice it would be if all the devotees of the world follow the instructions of Srila Prabhupada and cooperate in such an affectionate rapport.

Well, ain’t that just dandy? Sundar Gopal, ritvik initiator. By what mechanism did he ever become authorized to initiate on behalf of Srila Prabhupada?

This, the same Sundar Gopal das who for many years tried to drive us and anyone else not in his camp out of Singapore, who, according to a person who attacked me with an iron rod one night, had instigated the burning of our temple, books and deities in 1990, who used to call the Singapore authorities on us when we had Sunday feast programs, who called the police to report that we were going door-to-door selling books, who stopped our publication Every Town & Village, who launched the nefarious BBTI courtcase in Singapore against us for having published Bhagavad-gita As It Is in Chinese, claiming that we had infringed the copyright (BBTI ended up having to withdraw the case because they could not establish ownership of the copyright), and who has publicly denounced Hansadutta and continues to do so… In all these years Sundar Gopal das has never owned up to and apologized for any of these actions. But somehow or other he is regarded as a disciple of Srila Prabhupada in very good standing, good enough to initiate new disciples of Srila Prabhupada.

For that matter, Sundar Gopal never once met Srila Prabhupada; he himself was initiated by letter from either Ramesvar or Tamal Krsna Goswami; later he took second initiation together with his brother from Hansadutta. Of course he later rejected Hansadutta, but kept the brahmana thread.

And Svarat (initiated by Kapindra Swami a few years back) shortly before Janmastami 2009 swore to me that he had no connection with Sundar Gopal. Swore that he had no knowledge that his own mother and sister had taken initiation from Sundar Gopal until they informed him afterwards. He was kinda fidgety, I have to say, when I insisted that he must have known and that he was surely associating with Sundar Gopal. He didn’t have anything to say at all when I enumerated the glories of Sundar Gopal as above. He kept very quiet, though his eyes would not meet mine, and he was clearly uncomfortable, but perhaps he didn’t dare protest because he was at the time taking advantage of my hospitality in allowing his second wife to stay with us (he ran off to India with her to be married without the knowledge of his first wife and when they returned and their marriage was discovered by the second wife’s family, her brother and cousin beat him up and threatened to kill him, so they were separated, and she took shelter at our place for a few months, even while the two of them were planning all the while to get back together, and maybe now they are living as man and wife out in the open – I don’t know, and don’t care, because neither one was honest with me). Anyway, the last time I visited Svarat, after his second wife left our place and returned to her family, it was to retrieve books and other items that he had taken from me back in 2006 under the pretext of opening a center under the auspices of Hansadutta, Rittvik Representative of Srila Prabhupada. Svarat would not even admit me into his house, let alone offer me a glass of water, and his first wife gave me evil looks as if I was the worst demon, how dare I claim those things back from them.

Then in September I learned that Svarat had told at least one person that Sundar Gopal said to him that I myself probably set fire to the temple in Singapore to collect insurance. When I confronted Svarat, he denied it.

The fire burned our place down in August, 1990. At the time, I and one other devotee, Vrindaranya das, were staying at the Sembahwang Bala-Subramaniam temple. We were there as longterm guests at the pleasure of the temple committee, who accommodated us in a tiny space sandwiched between the chariot storehouse and the residence of the head priest. We neither owned nor rented our quarters, and our only belongings, apart from clothing and some cookware and personal documents, were beautiful Radha Krishna deities, Gaura Nitai and Lord Nrsinghadeva, and cases of Srila Prabhupada’s books. What kind of insurance could we have purchased when we living in those circumstances? In the fire, we lost everything – most unfortunately, our beloved deities and all of Prabhupada’s books. Not only that, the temple’s chariot and deity carriers were all burnt to ash, as well as the head priest’s room and so many provisions from festival donations – hundreds of 100kg bags of rice, tins of oil, sugar, etc. all belonging to the temple. None of that was insured, and the temple committee was understandably dismayed. Concerned that we were the target of an arson attack, they gave us notice to look for lodgings elsewhere. One week later, we washed our clothes and left them hanging on the line to dry, then went out to purchase some essential items like cookware, and came back to find our clothes smoldering in a small pile and the discarded wrapping from a piece of camphor. Someone had set fire to our clothing. The temple priest alerted us to one fellow who had purchased the camphor and was seen lurking about. Later that night, after we took our bath and came to the car to change our clothes, that person, known to be one of Sundar Gopal’s henchmen, came out from the dark and attacked me with an iron rod, saying he wanted to kill me. From his mouth we heard that it was Sundar Gopal who had instigated the burning of our quarters, the deities and books of Srila Prabhupada.

Now, whether Sundar Gopal did it or caused it to be done or had nothing to do with it we have no proof except for the admission of that fellow, who has since run away. But we do have proof that Sundar Gopal was behind the BBTI courtcase in Singapore. We have information from devotees who worked under him that he also sabotaged our preaching efforts in so many ways as mentioned above, including even going so far as to install a surveillance device (bug) somewhere in the place we rented.

Of course, we are not the only ones who have enjoyed Sundar Gopal’s attentions over the years. He has harassed many devotees, including his own brother and sister-in-law. And he continues even today to make things unpleasant for devotees in Singapore who are not part of his little group. They call him a Ravana in the guise of a devotee. Just ask the devotees who gather at the Perumal temple on Serangoon Road every weekend. Or try googling “Sundar Gopal Singapore”. When we did, this turned up.

So we wonder at the statement that the devotees in Malaysia and Singapore are very happy to have been saved from bogus representation of Srila Prabhupada. But really, Sundar Gopal as Ritvik representative of Malaysia and Singapore??? Nowadays I guess anyone can step up and anoint himself ritvik initiator. It will be interesting to see how these two persons work together – Svarat an ungrateful liar and Sundar Gopal a manipulative, self-serving, self-promoting guru wannabe.

There’s something amiss when the self-anointed Ritvik Representatives do not at all acknowledge the one remaining person whom Srila Prabhupada himself appointed to act as Ritvik Representative of the Acharya.

“Although one may be well versed in the transcendental science, one should be careful about the offense of maryada-vyatikrama, or impertinently surpassing a greater personality. According to scriptural injunction one should be very careful of transgressing the law of maryada-vyatikrama because by so doing one loses his duration of life, his opulence, fame and piety and the blessings of all the world. To be well versed in the transcendental science necessitates awareness of the techniques of spiritual science. Uddhava, being well aware of all these technicalities of transcendental science, advised Vidura to approach Maitreya Rishi to receive transcendental knowledge. Vidura wanted to accept Uddhava as his spiritual master, but Uddhava did not accept the post because Vidura was as old as Uddhava’s father and therefore Uddhava could not accept him as his disciple, especially when Maitreya was present nearby. The rule is that in the presence of a higher personality one should not be very eager to impart instructions, even if one is competent and well versed.” (purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.4.26)

ISKCON disregarded and bypassed Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for initiating the devotees after his departure, concocting their own system, and now we see that the so-called “ritvik” devotees are also doing. What’s wrong with keeping strictly to Srila Prabhupada’s order, the letter of July 9th, 1977? So far everyone seems to find it necessary to construct their own interpretation or work-around rather than simply acknowledging and cooperating with the authorized Rittvik Representative, Hansadutta das.

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Hare Krishna dear and respectable Bhima das Prabhu!PAMHO And all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The issue of how to implement the ritvik order seems also to me to be of a great importance! As you say prabhu, if we do accept the Final Order as stated by the Acarya in the 9th July Letter, then why do we take from it only what fits our likes, and reject thing upon our mental speculation, which seems not suit our likes. I see the danger of overriding the authority, though one may think his intentions is what counts. As my little experience goes, maya never gives up, and since my long commitment to her she is already well established in my heart, it is easy to mistake her advice for being a bona fide one. I will read further your articles dear prabhu, and pray and practice to come to the proper understanding of the most important issue. Thank you for your great example of determination and commitment to Sri Sri Guru and Gaurangas Order.Your servant bhakta jarek